Just returned from Tucson and I would like to thank everyone I met or bumped into while there. The weather, however, was just a wee bit too hot for me (and I caught the Tucson lurgy which really p***ed me off).

I have to say I agree with a lot of what you say regarding our politicians, or potential politicians. You only have to look at the candidates for the Republican Party presidential nomination to see how bad things have become. Not that we in the UK are any better, but at least we don't have a Donald Trump (now labelled "the dumb blonde" in the British press) to contend with although Boris Johnston and a few other do come close. Nevertheless, if you put four pieces of s**t up as candidates, you are still going to end up electing a piece of s**t.

I do agree that the government is terrible at administering anything, be it a local neighborhood dog park or a national forest. BLM rules are a mess and the enforcement is inconsistent at best.

But, one thing to remember is that government officials do not come from another galaxy and force their way into Congress. They are the cream of the private sector crop and we put them there. If government sucks, it's because we keep electing people who suck. Worse, 99% of the the choices we get to choose from also suck to roughly equal degrees.

What do we expect when we let a bunch of CEO's, lobbyists, hedge funders, washed out lawyers, and ego-tripped doctors run the government? And we get a selection of idiots to pick from every four years - some of those idiots have Ivy League credentials, and some do not, but they all suck.

Until the masses demand competent candidates based on merit and not charismatic fools with deep pockets, we will keep getting the same treatment every four years.

I don't care if the president or our congresspeople are black, white, male, female, religious, atheist, socialist, libertarian, gay, straight, or whatever. But, I think we should demand competence.
Congressmen which no knowledge of science should not sit on committees responsible for funding scientific projects. Presidents or congressmen with no war-fighting experience should not be starting wars, etc. And, by extension, BLM rangers and officials should not be making or enforcing the rules of land management unless they have some degree of expertise in the academic/scientific/engineering or field aspects of the resources they govern.

So, back to meteorites and rockhounding - this is what happens when we elect people to oversee resource-rich lands who no background or interest in geology, forestry, or related fields. The rank and file BLM field rangers might know their business, but they do not know the intricacies of the entire body of federal regulations that they are trying to interpret and enforce. The bureaucrats at the top of the chain are so far removed from the field, that they have no expertise with rocks, minerals, or natural resources - they are a bunch of former lobbyists, white collars, and people who have never had their hands dirty.

That's my two cents, actual worth may vary widely. ;)

PS - I do not think Adam intended his post as racist or Islamophobic.
People are getting a little too touchy these days. But, there is a lot of bigotry out there, so those are the days we live in and sometimes appearances matter more than substance. We have to be careful about what we say, where, and how we say it - and, how other people might interpret what we say or play semantics with our words. It sucks, but that's how it is.

[/rant]

Best regards and happy huntings,

MikeG

On 2/12/16, Raremeteorites via Meteorite-list <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com> wrote:
> Where I grew up in the Northwest, if a person is angry or disgusted,
> they use the person's entire name to emphasize a point. I knew there
> was trouble
>
> when my mother called out to me, "Adam Charles Hupe, What have you done?"
> instead of just, "Adam." People are far too sensitive these days. I do
> not like it when a politician of any sort makes unilateral decisions
> without
>
> public input.
>
> Rock hounding used to be considered a healthy pursuit. Now a huge
> corridor
>
> is completely off limits practically in my back yard here in the
> Mohave Desert.
>
> Best,
>
> Adam
>
>
> ______________________________________________
>
> Visit our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/meteoritecentral and
> the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> https://pairlist3.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list>